


Prism

by iamladyloki



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Ballet, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, RC secret Valentine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-14
Updated: 2017-02-14
Packaged: 2018-09-24 06:27:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9707981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iamladyloki/pseuds/iamladyloki
Summary: Ballet dancer/pianist AU. Cassian is a composer, primarily writing and playing piano music. Jyn is a ballet dancer, taking up after her parents. Then one day, the unthinkable happened - her mother was murdered. With her father returned to the army, Jyn’s life became one of despair and monotony. Until the day that the music came back, and the dancing followed.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kylorendered](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=kylorendered).



The Erso family loved to dance. Jyn’s mother, Lyra, once told her that she had inherited the love of dance as early as the womb, when her feet would pitter-patter against her mother’s belly to the beat of the orchestra. From there her love for it only grew. She practically grew up in the Performing Arts Centre, mimicking her favorite dancers - including her very own parents. She savored every experience, from the crescendo of an orchestra performance to the most beautiful pirouette of a ballet dancer. Ballet was her favorite. She took after her parents in that regard.

For seventeen years she learned and honed and improved her ballet dancing, until she, too, was performing on stage as principal dancer. The happiest she felt was when she was a part of something as big as a ballet performance, moving to the music in the company of dear friends, listening to the audience applauding at the end. For a time, Jyn felt invincible.

The dancing stopped the day her mother was murdered.

Her life turned upside down. Dancing turned to office work, the orchestra turned into pop music on the radio. Anything that reminded Jyn of her mother hurt her too much, so she let it all go. So, too, did her father let everything to do with his life prior to Lyra’s death go. He re-joined the military, leaving even his own daughter behind. Jyn understood. She wished she could run away, too. 

What once was a vibrant life turned to dust. Spotlights and theatre lighting became fluorescents and bright computer screens. Diversity and improvisation became monotony and routine. And slowly, Jyn forgot what it felt like to dance. 

Until the day the music came back.

It was sudden. It was the most lovely piano music Jyn had heard in years. She was caught off guard, unprepared to hear the insurance company’s grand piano being played in the lobby. In her three years with the company, Jyn had heard the piano played perhaps four or five times, and always during events. This day was not special. In fact, it was an ordinary Wednesday. She had just left her cubicle and made her way to the elevator to take a lunch break when the soft tinkling of the music drifted towards her on the seventh floor. The elevator pinged, indicating it had arrived, and two middle-aged women exited the elevator, commenting on how splendid it was to hear the piano in use.

She didn’t know what to make of it, or how to react. When the doors finally opened on the first floor, Jyn drifted towards the truly stunning piano music as if in a daze. The man was beautiful, the brown skin of his hands standing out against the ivory of the keys. The most beautiful thing about him was the true love of the music that permeated the room. Every expression, every motion of his body, amplified the beauty of the music. She’d never seen someone play the piano so masterfully.

For the first time in nearly five years, Jyn felt her heart open to the music. She couldn’t help but think about how she would have called her mother and held up the phone to allow her to hear the piece. She could picture her mother, eyes closed, cheeks rosy, the blissful smile on her face as she took in the music. She could see her father wrapping his arms around Lyra’s front, kissing her cheek as they soaked in the raw beauty of the music.

She didn’t realize she was crying until an office coworker offered her a tissue. She took it, somewhat embarrassed, and wiped at the tears that had left tracks down her face. Then she realized something else.

She wanted to dance.

She could picture the movements her body would make to the music. Improv ballet used to be one of her favorite dance activities. Letting the music flow through her limbs was one of the most freeing feelings in the world. 

So she danced.

She toed off her flats, dropping her purse beside them, and let every emotion, every musical note, wash through her, tugging her this way and that like a puppet on strings. Her dress twirled, her stocking-covered feet slid across the floor, and she felt small bits of once-dormant color bloom into her life.

Much too soon, the music ended, leaving her breathless and staring at the pianist, who returned her gaze. He was smiling from ear to ear. Jyn was vaguely aware of a smattering of applause in the background, but her focus was still on the pianist. With a start, she realized that she recognized his face - he had been a young novice pianist interning at the Theatre many years ago. She couldn’t remember his name, but it was clear that he remembered hers.

“Jyn Erso,” he said, eyes bright. “It has been so long.” She got the feeling that he was talking about more than just seeing each other again. She didn’t know what to say in response. Sensing her hesitation, the pianist stood and said, “My name is Cassian. You may not remember me-”

She cut him off, “Oh, I do remember you! You played the most beautiful rendition of F ür Elise when you auditioned. What are you doing here?” Her tone was more surprised than anything, so she hoped he didn’t think that she was upset to see him.

His eyes seemed to brighten further, both pleased that she remembered him and, perhaps, by her question. “How about we go grab some coffee?” he suggested, rather than answering her question. Her dancing high began to diminish; hesitancy and suspicion began to fill her gut. Nonetheless, she agreed, if for nothing else than to keep speaking to Cassian.

 

* * *

 

_ 6 months later _

It wasn’t just coffee that Cassian had wanted that day. Of  _ course _ it wasn’t.

Jyn huffed, fighting the childish urge to stomp her foot. She couldn’t believe that Cassian and their friends had talked her into this. “Are you sure this is going to work?”

She could tell Cassian was trying not to roll his eyes. “Jyn. As you have already discussed in extreme detail, yes, everything is going to work out. Now, for once, do as I say!” Cassian demanded with a smile on his smug face.

Jyn pursed her lips and snatched her resignation letter from his hands (he had taken it away from her hands the moment it printed, not trusting her not to send it through the shredder). Steeling herself, she walked as confidently as she could manage to her boss’s office. She handed the letter to him, and he read over it. Much to her surprise, he smiled.

“Mr. Rook?” she asked hesitantly, puzzled about his surprisingly happy reaction.

“I was wondering if you would ever return,” Bodhi said. She blinked. He continued, “Jyn, you are a brilliant dancer. It’s a shame for your talent to be locked away in an office. Now get going. I’ll see you at the Theatre.” He winked, and with a smile and a thank-you, she hurried back down to Cassian.

“I did it!” she said, smiling from ear to ear. Suddenly, she was enveloped in a hug. Hugs with Cassian were one of Jyn’s favorite things. They were full of comfort, reassurances, and soothed every nerve in her body. They were the comfort she had been seeking for longer than she wanted to admit. 

Finally, after several long seconds, they pulled apart. She smirked, somewhat in self-deprecation, and said, “You were right. This job wasn’t worth it. I’m ready.”

Cassian’s eyes were brighter than she had ever seen them. “Then let’s get going,” he said, linking his arm with hers. “We’ve no time to waste.”

She patted his arm with her free hand. “Sounds like a plan, partner.”

* * *

 

She was going to do this. She was doing this. This was going to happen.

The flutter in her chest, the twisting of her stomach, were achingly familiar. Only these pre-show jitters were worse than before. She had quit her job for this. She had given up her black-and-white, cookie cutter life for this.

She let the color back into her life.

She did not regret it.

Especially at the look on Cassian’s face. His delight perhaps even surpassed hers. He took her hands in his. His beautiful, elegant hands, that would play the soul of the songs she would dance to. “Are you ready?”

She nodded. It was perhaps more of a jerk than a true nod, but her nerves felt as taut as a violin’s strings. “I’m ready,” she confirmed.

He seemed to believe her, so he placed a lingering kiss to her forehead. “You are going to be amazing. Make everyone proud. I’ll see you soon.”

He disappeared, and she waved to Baze, who leaned over to inform Chirrut of her action. They both waved in return. Baze mouthed, “Good luck.” She nodded again. They disappeared into the orchestra pit.

She got into position behind the curtain and proscenium.

The music began.

The curtains parted.

The golds and reds of the full auditorium suddenly eased her nerves. She could do this. She did it every day until her mother…

She could do this.

She danced.

It was cathartic; she danced for Cassian, who had encouraged her and believed in her when nobody else seemed to. She danced for her Theatre friends, who had welcomed her back as though she had never left. She danced for Bodhi, for showing up in the first row. She danced for her father, since he could not do it for himself. She danced for her mother, who she knew was watching from above and cheering her on.

But mostly, she danced for herself.

Her thirty minutes of dancing were over before she knew it. She could feel the tears streaking down her face as she bowed and the curtain closed. She wiped away her tears in the dressing room - they wouldn’t  _ stop _ \- and grinned when she saw Cassian looking at her in the mirror. She turned, and before she could even second guess herself, she asked: “Would it be okay if I kissed you?”

Cassian smiled softly and replied: “I was going to ask you the same question.”

The kiss was its own dance, one she had been aching to try for the past six months. It was as satisfying and beautiful as she had dreamed.

A knock on the door broke them apart. Cassian wiped a last stray tear from her cheek, smiling slightly, and they turned to see who was there.

“Mr. Rook!” she said, smiling.

“You don’t work for me anymore, Jyn. I insist that you call me Bodhi,” he said, and handed her a bouquet of long stem red roses.

“Thank you, Bodhi,” she said, taking the flowers from him. “They are beautiful!”

They chatted for a few more minutes, before Cassian alerted Jyn that there was one last surprise waiting for her in the lobby outside of the auditorium. Puzzled, she followed him, and they walked hand-in-hand to the lobby.

She froze.

Blinked.

“Daddy?” she gasped, and tears sprung anew. She ran to his waiting arms, and he picked her up, holding her to him. She couldn’t stop the sobs that choked from her chest. “You came home. You’re home. You came to my first dance.”

They stood apart, and he gripped her shoulder. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world, Stardust.”

For the first time since before the loss of her mother, Jyn felt whole. Not only had color returned to her life, it blossomed and multiplied and surpassed any shade prior. She wasn’t just primaries and secondaries, she was a prism. She had let love back in. She didn’t regret it. Not a single moment.

  
All thanks to a pianist who believed that she wasn’t done dancing. Now, more than ever, she believed it, too.

**Author's Note:**

> I listened to a lot of Ludovico Einaudi while writing this (particularly his album Divenire). I hope you enjoyed it!!! Happy Valentine’s Day! :)
> 
> Catch me on tumblr as @fightlikeleia.


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